


i have never known (the likes of this)

by CloudCover (RainyForecast)



Series: Hockey RPF Tumblr Prompts [18]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not Hockey Player(s), Camera Operator!Sid, M/M, TV Host!Geno, with a side of Flower/Vero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 14:44:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13297083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainyForecast/pseuds/CloudCover
Summary: “Shut up,” Sid says again, desperate to head off this line of teasing before it can escalate any further. He should never have confessed to Flower about how much he loves Malkin’s Menagerie.Anonymous asked:Sidgeno #33(celebritiy/fan) for the prompt thing!!





	i have never known (the likes of this)

“So, how’re you holding up, Sid?” Flower says, his grin puckish and amused. **  
**

“Shut up,” Sid retorts. He re-checks his camera’s settings for the fifth time, hoping his ears aren’t as red as they feel.

“Aww, precious muffin, it’s not everyday you get to meet—”

“Shut up,” Sid says again, desperate to head off this line of teasing before it can escalate any further, or, god forbid, someone else on the crew overhears.

He should never have confessed to Flower about how much he loves  _Malkin’s Menagerie_. It’s not his usual type of show. His taste usually runs to serious war documentaries or biopics about NASA. However, during a shoot last year, he’d been suffering from a lousy bout of jet-lag fueled insomnia. Flicking through motel room tv channels in an effort to numb his brain enough to sleep, he’d stumbled across the show. He’d been charmed from the get-go.

The presenter, Evgeni Malkin, was this huge, gangly, exuberant Russian guy who traveled around the world, talking about different animals and conservation programs. There are a ton of shows like that, Sid’s even done camerawork for a few. But something about  _Malkin’s Menagerie_ is different. Maybe it’s the honest enthusiasm— hard to come by in this business. Malkin clearly loves his job, and loves the animals so, so much. The show’s unofficial tagline is pretty much “I can pet?”

It seems like it’s Malkin’s mission to snuggle pretty much every animal around the globe that will let him. He’s so gentle with them, too. The last episode had seen him [cooing at an impossibly cute baby slot](https://ofgeography.tumblr.com/post/169411522123)h as it (slowly) tried to climb onto Malkin’s ever present backwards snapback. Malkin resembled nothing so much as an ebullient, marshmallow-hearted Russian frat boy, and it worked for him. 

Really,  _really_  worked for him.

Sid shakes his head to clear it. He couldn’t let this…crush… get to him. He works in show business, for fuck’s sake. He’s been on the other side of the lens from A-listers. Well. As close as they get to those in Canada.  He doesn’t get silly about who he’s filming. Until now.

When he’d heard  _Vero and Catherine_  was going to bring Evgeni Malkin on as a guest interviewee, he’d had enough of a little mini-freakout that he’d ended up blurting everything to Flower, to his eternal regret.

“Oh, like you can judge me,” Sid had snapped over Flower’s gleeful chortling, jerking his head towards where Veronique Larosee was sitting in her co-host’s chair, getting her makeup retouched.

“Ah,” Flower had replied, staring with his habitual mooney-eyed expression at the so-called love of his life. “Unlike you,  _mon chum_ , I’m actually doing something about my troubles of the heart.”

“She said she doesn’t date co-workers,” Sid had said waspishly although he’d felt bad about it later.

[“I told her it’s ok, I’m an independent contractor,” Flower said,](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftriblive.com%2Fx%2Fpittsburghtrib%2Fsports%2Fpenguins%2Fs_659578.html&t=ZDdlZTk3M2UwY2FiZmVkNzMwYzM2MTQ2OWNjMDk4NjlmZTgwNzBjZSxQRmFzZG5Edg%3D%3D&b=t%3AEq-DaU3xqeeaPB184nfbeA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fknifeshoeoreofight.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F169416903504%2Fsidgeno-33-for-the-prompt-thing&m=1) spirit unquenchable. “Love will prevail, I just know it!”

Now, as he starts in on his sixth unnecessary round of checks, Sid feels like his nerves are karma for being a dick about Flower’s kind of super sweet hang-up on Vero.

 

* * *

Malkin is even bigger in real life. Sid swallows as he watches, safely hidden behind his camera equipment, as Malkin benevolently looms over Vero and Catherine Laflamme. His huge hands dwarf theirs as he shakes them, all the while cradling a tiny orange kitten in the crook of his other arm. Sid isn’t going to survive this.

The gist of the segment is going to be Malkin talking about how house cats are tiny apex predators who basically domesticated themselves, and giving some care and behavior tips to the viewers of the show. The kitten he’s holding belongs to a local shelter, which is being promoted as this episode’s charity spotlight. Everything goes fine at first. The kitten is cute and Malkin is charming, and Sid dies a thousand deaths when the kitten perches on Malkin’s shoulder and he unconsciously tilts his head to rub his cheek against its soft, fluffy fur. Really, it’s a toss up as to who is cuter.

Eventually though, as it always does, something has to go sideways. In this case, someone drops a crate or something off camera and the kitten startles, leaping out of Malkin’s arms before he can grab ahold of it. It rockets straight for Sid, and all he can think is that the studio is a warren of rooms and equipment, full of tight spaces for a baby animal to hide and never get found. Sid launches himself off of his stool after it, but also isn’t able to grab it before it dives into a snarl of cables. Sid crouches, making himself smaller and reaching out towards the kitten, talking soothing nonsense to it under his breath. The poor thing is shaking.

After a few moment, though, it makes a tiny, heart-melting mew and toddles out far enough that Sid can scoop it up and cradle it to his chest. He jumps, thankfully keeping his careful grip on the kitten, when a smattering of applause breaks out. He turns, already feeling his face flush with embarrassment, to see the entire cast and crew looking on with various expressions of charmed amusement.

Malkin is halfway to, him, and he’s wearing a pretty weird expression. Sid wonders what he did, as he carefully hands the kitten back to Malkin. Their hands brush, and Malkin keeps staring at him.

“Thank you,” Malkin says. “What your name?”

“I’m Sidney,” Sid says. “Uh, good thing he didn’t get far, eh? Cute little thing.” He scritches the kitten’s ears, and it mews again. Sid has to smile at it.

When he makes eye contact with Malkin again, Malkin is still. Staring. “Back to work!” Sid says awkwardly and tries to smile at him. He ducks back behind the safe barrier of his camera, and filming resumes.

He’s got to be imagining that Malkin’s looking into his camera a lot more than he was before the kitten got loose.

 

* * *

When shooting finally wraps up, Sid catches the lady from the shelter as she’s crating the kitten up. It’s so small and so sweet, and he feels kinda unsettled by the idea of it going back to a sterile steel cage at the shelter. He and the women have a quiet word, and she passes him her business card, smiling. She promises that she’ll hold the kitten for him, and that he can pick it up tomorrow morning.

“I think I just somehow acquired a cat,” Sid says blankly to Flower as they get to work breaking down their respective equipment. “Get that out of my face,” he adds, swatting at Flower’s boom mike.

Flower cackles. “You’re about to acquire something else, Mr. Hero.”

“Huh?” Sid says, before he hears a throat clear behind him. He turns, and it’s Malkin. Sid sets down the box he’d lifted to his shoulder. Malkin’s eyes track the movement, but then he yanks his eyes back up to Sid’s face.

“Thanks again for help,” Malkin says.

“I really, really didn’t really do much?” Sid replies, a little confused. Malkin shuffles his feet awkwardly.

“Take you to dinner to say thank you?” Malkin persists, rocking back and forth on his heels a little.

“He’s very single, and he’d  _love_  to go with you,” Flower suddenly interjects, popping up over Sid’s shoulder, grinning like a lunatic. “He’s a huuuge fan, loves your show—”

“Flower!” Sid cries, but Malkin’s uncertain expression melts into a blinding smile.

“Very glad to hear,” he rumbles. “You free at eight? I’m pick you up?”

“Sure,” Sid says faintly, and somehow manages to exchange phone numbers  and say goodbye with only a moderate amount of nervous fumbling. Malkin keeps turning around to smile at him as he walks away, eventually walking backward into a piece of the set. He honest-to-god  _blushes_  and books it out of there. Sid stares dazedly after him.

Flowers smiles gently at him then. “Good luck, Sid. Take the chance to be happy.”  

“Thanks,” Sid says gratefully, and as he turns toward Flower, he glimpses Vero standing over by the edge of the set behind them, clearly waiting for their conversation to be finished so she can come over and talk to Flower. “You too, eh?” He grins, as it’s Flower’s turn to look thrown off. Sid hoists his box of gear again, and leaves them to it, smiling the entire way out of the building, heart feeling light as air.

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'd.
> 
> Title is from "I've Just Seen A Face" by the Beatles
> 
>  
> 
> You can find me as [creaturesofnarrative ](http://creaturesofnarrative.tumblr.com/) (main) and [knifeshoeoreofight](http://knifeshoeoreofight.tumblr.com/) (hockey blog, which I'm most active on) on Tumblr, and as @RainyForecast on Twitter. Come say hi!


End file.
